Building of a JMC Guitar

Centuries-old Lutherie Techniques and Creativity

Stringed instrument making (lutherie) techniques date back hundreds of years. Contrary to the violin, which has a sculpted soundboard, the soundboard is shaped from resonance. It is supported by bracings, a kind of wooden structure with bars made from resonance spruce, which are used to shape and arch the soundboard, to give it strength and above all to balance the sound in terms of frequencies. There are thus fairly standard bracings for the different families of guitars. Nonetheless, each guitar maker has his own tricks and secrets. He will then sculpt these bracings to direct the frequencies. In this case, a guitar with a spruce resonance soundboard must be regularly played by the guitarist for three years in order to fulfill its true potential. The guitar maker therefore anticipates this development and accordingly builds the guitar with sufficiently high-pitched tones, because the low-pitched tones will naturally emerge over time to ensure that the instrument achieves an ideal balance in the long term.

After more than 30 years of experience derived from hand-crafting over 150 guitars, Jeanmichel Capt has developed a unique know-how and an infallible instinct. Link on Luthier Jeanmichel Capt